§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSETrose to ask Her Majesty's Government a Question on the subject of Chain Cables and Anchors, and said that he had placed this Notice on the Paper because in reading in the newspapers the accounts of the voyage of the Prince of Wales, he had been struck—and he thought their Lordships must have been struck—by the remarkable fact that the Serapis, in which His Royal Highness was embarked, appeared to have been supplied with very bad ground tackle. Her anchors and chains had given way on more than one occasion. He understood that, in the Piraeus, both cables broke, 546 she lost two anchors, and she was carried against the Osborne, to the injury of both vessels. Again, when the Serapis arrived on the coast of India one of her anchors gave way, and she drifted at considerable risk. Now these circumstances in connection with this vessel appeared so singular that he had been induced to ask how it came about that her cables and anchors should be so bad. "With regard to the way in which anchors were supplied to the Navy, their Lordships were aware that several kinds of anchors had been from time to time submitted to the Admiralty. Among them were Porter's, of which they had heard a great deal; Trotman's, of which much had been heard in the Lobby of the House of Commons; Rogers's, and Martin's which a great many naval officers preferred. He wanted to know how many firms now supplied anchors to the Admiralty? Formerly the Department contracted for anchors only with firms of well-known reputation: but it was said that, from motives of supposed economy, there was less precaution now in that respect, and that, as a consequence, some of the anchors supplied for Her Majesty's ships were of inferior quality. The turret ships were supplied with Martin's anchors; but it was said that, though the Captain of the Serapis had applied for Martin's, he was not supplied with them, but with anchors of an inferior description. He wished for information on that point; and also as to the test applied to anchors used in the Navy. With respect to chain cables, he should like some information of a similar character. Formerly, the whole of a cable was tested by the Admiralty by subjecting it to a very severe strain in excess of what it was likely to have to endure when being worked in a ship; but when he was at the Admiralty it was thought that such a system of test was not a good one, as it was calculated to injure the fibres of the material in the cables which stood it. On that account it was considered better to take out a few links here and there and subject them to a very severe test, even at the risk of breaking links of ordinary strength. There were objections to both systems; and probably the best security we could have in respect both of anchors and cables was to contract for them only with firms of established reputation. He wished to ask Her Majesty's Govern- 547 ment, Under what system the Admiralty-procure chain cables and anchors for Her Majesty's ships; and what is the mode of testing now adopted; also, whether the rumours of the failure of the chain cables in the voyage of the Serapis are true or false?
§ THE EARL OF MALMESBURYsaid, he was informed that when, in the harbour of the Piræus, the Serapis was about to take up the berth which had been assigned to her, owing to some mistake or other—probably to one arising from a mistake as to the language used—she overshot the mark. When this was perceived she was brought up suddenly, and the cable snapped. A link was taken out of it and sent to England, and it proved to be of good iron. Before the Serapis started her cables had been tested and were reported to be composed of the very best materials:—a link that was found to be bad was taken out at Portsmouth. The regulations for testing required that so many links in a length of chain cable should be subjected to a severe test. The anchors also were submitted to tests laid down in Regulations. In fact, every possible care was taken to ascertain that both anchors and cables were trustworthy; and he could not find that any accident similar to the one he had just referred to had occurred to the Serapis on any of her previous trips. As to Martin's anchors, they were only served out to the largest class of ships.
§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSETwished to remark that Martin's anchors were used in the Navies of almost all other nations. They were adopted by France, by Germany, by Austria, by Italy, by America, and they were supplied to all our large iron-clads and turret-ships. Why should the other ships of the Navy have anchors inferior to those used generally by so many other nations and by our own iron-clads?
THE EARL OF LAUDERDALEsaid, that the character of the bottom on which the anchor was let go had very much to do with the matter. He believed there was no test of either chain cables or anchors in the Merchant Service, and such a state of things was very dangerous.
LORD ELPHINSTONEsaid, that, from information received here, it would appear that the breaking of the anchor of the Serapis was caused by the anchor 548 being dropped on a rocky bottom. Ships like the Serapis were built by contract, and their anchors and cables were supplied by contract; but the Admiralty subjected both the latter to the tests referred to by his noble Friend who had answered the Question of the noble Duke.